Archaeology and the Early Years: The Noah's Ark Experience

Background to the project

The authors of this article first worked together on a number of small scale excavations while Bev was still a primary school teacher in the Bradford area. When Bev changed roles to train teachers at Leeds Trinity they were both keen to sustain the link. Dave welcomed the opportunity to disseminate good practice in school-based archaeology through working with teachers of the future. Bev viewed it as a way to enrich the experience of the students and help them to meet the challenges of delivering creative and increasingly cross-curricular teaching.

Students at all levels found Dave's sessions inspirational and many integrated archaeology within lesson planning while on placement. However it quickly became evident that the emphasis of these sessions had been on those students preparing to teach at Key Stage 2. Early Years students needed further input and support. The project then emerged with the key aim of developing effective teaching materials to promote the inclusion of archaeology into the Early Years curriculum. This in turn would strengthen the links between the two organisations, which would work together to disseminate the methodologies...